I HAVE THE ANSWER! Did it online with the IRS agent (after a 40 minute hold)
I'm not sure why this stupid issue is there, but it is. When filling the boxes, DO NOT USE THE TAB BUTTON! Just click into the fields directly, never using the tab button. Also, on the first page, identify the tax year (ie. 2019) you're paying on, but on the second page (to verify your person) use 2018 as the year, since the 2019 tax filing may not yet be registered (per the IRS agent). When I used 2018 to verify, then didn't tab at all, just clicked directly in to fields / boxes, it accepted it, after failure 10- 12 times with 4 different browsers, and then moved me on to the direct payment page. Although the browser doesn't seem to be the issue, when I walked it through with the IRS agent, I made sure we were on the same browser, and that was INTERNET EXPLORER. Then, when she tried with "tabbing," she got in, and when tried without "tabbing," she got the same error msgs I was getting. DO enter no dashes in the SS#, even though the system adds them automatically after you go to a new box.
You'd think all of our tax dollars could pay for some more IT people, because this system is a bunch of nonsense! But, I did tell the IRS agent that I thought this issue should be sent to IT. Who knows how many people are having the same issue, and the IRS agent didn't know. It was just by chance that she indicated to try it without using "TABS."
